Francis Jeffrey

‘Scott, though living in an age unusually prolific of original poetry, has manifestly outstripped all his competitors in the race of popularity; and stands already upon a height to which no other writer has attained in the memory of any one now alive. We doubt, indeed, whether any English poet ever had so many of his books sold, or so many of his verses read and admired by such a multitude of persons, in so short a time. We are credibly informed, that nearly thirty thousand copies of "The Lay" have been already disposed of in this country; and that the demand for Marmion, and the poem now before us, has been still more considerable, — a circulation, we believe, altogether without example, in the case of a bulky work, not addressed to the bigotry of the mere mob, either religious or political.

A popularity so universal is a pretty sure proof of extraordinary merit, — a far surer one, we readily admit, than would be afforded by any praises of ours: and, therefore, though we pretend to be privileged, in ordinary cases, to foretel the ultimate reception of all claims on public admiration, our function may be thought to cease, where the event is already so certain and conspicuous. As it is a sore thing, however, to be deprived of our privileges on so important an occasion, we hope to be pardoned for insinuating, that, even in such a case, the office of the critic may not be altogether superfluous. Though the success of the author be decisive, and likely to be permanent, it still may not be without its use to point out, in consequence of what, and in spite of what, he has succeeded; nor altogether uninstructive to trace the precise limits of the connexion which, even in this dull world, indisputably subsists between success and desert, and to ascertain how far unexampled popularity implies unrivaled talent...’

Francis Jeffrey, first editor of the Edinburgh Review, on Walter Scott.  Lord Jeffrey was born on October 23, 1773.

Great Disappointment

‘…The torrent of mystical yet animating eloquence of the preacher—an old grey-haired man, whom zeal seemed to supply with the powers of voice and action, of which years had deprived him—was suited to the taste of his audience, but could not be transferred to these pages without scandal and impropriety. He menaced the rulers of England with all the judgments denounced on those of Moab and Assyria—he called upon the saints to be strong, to be up and doing; and promised those miracles which, in the campaigns of Joshua and his successors, the valiant Judges of Israel, supplied all odds against the Amorites, Midianites, and Philistines. He sounded trumpets, opened vials, broke seals, and denounced approaching judgments under all the mystical signs of the Apocalypse. The end of the world was announced, accompanied with all its preliminary terrors…’

Harold Kamping is not the first to proclaim the end of the world.  If you are reading this blog post, the rapture, which Kamping predicted has not occurred.  In fact, it’s already 10/22 in parts of the world, so I’ll assume it’s not coming today.

A 19^th century Baptist, William Miller, predicted Christ's return, and the world’s end on October 22^nd ; only one day's difference.   The year was 1844.  Just as with Kamping’s case, some of Miller’s followers gave away all their earthly goods.  And as with Miller’s case, the calculation must be off.  October 22, 1844 became known as the day of great disappointment for Millerites.  Wishing all a good tomorrow.

The text above comes from “The Wisdom of Sir Walter Scott…”, which was compiled by Owen Redfern.

Marshal Pierre Augereau

‘…It is said that Arena, a native of Corsica like himself, aimed a dagger at his [Napoleon’s] breast, which was only averted by the interposition of one of the grenadiers. The fact seems extremely doubtful, though it is certain that Bonaparte was seized by two or three members, while others exclaimed, "Was it for this you gained so many victories?" and loaded him with reproaches. At this crisis a party of grenadiers rushed into the hall with drawn swords, and extricating Bonaparte from the deputies, bore him off in their arms breathless with the scuffle.

It was probably at this crisis that Augereau's faith in his ancient general's fortune began to totter, and his revolutionary principles to gain an ascendence over his military devotion. "A fine situation you have brought yourself into," he said to Bonaparte, who answered sternly, "Augereau, things were worse at Areola—Take my advice—remain quiet, in a short time all this will change."  Augereau, whose active assistance and cooperation might have been at this critical period of the greatest consequence to the Council, took the hint, and continued passive…’

Marshal Pierre Augereau was born this day, October 21^st, in 1757, and his military career with Napoleon merits several entries in Sir Walter Scott’s “The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte”.  But, as the text above alludes to, Augereau didn’t side with Napoleon permanently, and the relationship between the two was not stable.  In 1814, Augereau joined the restored Louis XVIII.  When Napoleon returned from exile on Elba in March of 1815, Augereau tried to rejoin him, but Napoleon refused his service.

Iona

During the fall of 1773, James Boswell and Samuel Johnson were enjoying their tour of the Scottish Western Isles, having reached Iona.

'Wednesday, 20th October

Early in the morning we surveyed the remains of antiquity at this

place, accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as cicerone, who called

himself a descendant of a cousin of Saint Columba, the founder of the

religious establishment here. As I knew that many persons had already

examined them, and as I saw Dr Johnson inspecting and measuring

several of the ruins of which he has since given so full an account,

my mind was quiescent; and I resolved; to stroll among them at my

ease, to take no trouble to investigate minutely, and only receive the

general impression of solemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of

such objects as should of themselves strike my attention.

We walked from the monastery of nuns to the great church or cathedral,

as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They told us, that this

had been a street; and that there were good houses built on each side.

Dr Johnson doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the

nuns. The convent of monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four

other chapels, are still to be discerned. But I must own that

Icolmkill did not answer my expectations; for they were high, from

what I had read of it, and still more from what I had heard and

thought of it, from my earliest years. Dr Johnson said, it came up to

his expectations, because he had taken his impression from an account

of it subjoined to Sacheverel's History of the Isle of Man, where it

is said, there is not much to be seen here. We were both disappointed,

when we were shewn what are called the monuments of the kings of

Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark, and of a king of France. There are

only some grave-stones flat on the earth, and we could see no

inscriptions. How far short was this of marble monuments, like those

in Westminster Abbey, which I had imagined here! The grave-stones of

Sir Allan M'Lean's family, and of that of M'Quarrie, had as good an

appearance as the royal grave-stones; if they were royal, we doubted...'

Boswell and Johnson express mixed impressions about the isle, being somewhat disappointed overall. 

The entry above comes from Boswell’s “The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D”.

Sir Walter Scott also had mixed feelings about Iona, though for a different reason.  In “Northern Lights

or a Voyage in the Lighthouse Yacht to Nova Zembla and the Lord where in the summer of 1814”,

 Scott comments that “my eyes, familiarised with the wretchedness of Zetland (Shetland) and the

 Harris, are less shocked with that of Iona.”.  Scott was referring to how poor the inhabitants were, 

which was painful to witness.

Battle of Ulm

‘…Meanwhile, Mack found himself, with the remains of his army, cooped up in Ulm, as Wurmser had been in Mantua. He published an order of the day, which intimated an intention to imitate the persevering defence of that heroic veteran. He forbade the word surrender to be used by any one—he announced the arrival of two powerful armies, one of Austrians, one of Russians, whose appearance would presently raise the blockade—he declared his determination to eat horse-flesh rather than listen to any terms of capitulation. This bravado appeared on the 16th October, and the conditions of surrender were subscribed by Mack on the next day, having been probably in the course of adjustment when he was making these notable professions of resistance.

The course of military misconduct which we have traced, singular as it is, might be perhaps referred to folly or incapacity on the part of Mack, though it must be owned it was of that gross kind which civilians consider as equal to fraud. But another circumstance remains to be told, which goes far to prove that this once celebrated and trusted general had ingrafted the traitor upon the fool. The terms of capitulation, as subscribed on the 17th October, bore, that there should be an armistice until 26th October at midnight; and that if, during this space, an Austrian or Russian army should appear to raise the blockade, the army at Ulm should have liberty to join them, with their arms and baggage. This stipulation allowed the Austrian soldiers some hope of relief, and in any even it was sure to interrupt the progress of Buonaparte's successes, by detaining the principal part of his army in the neighbourhood of Ulm, until the term of nine days was expired. But Mack consented to a revision of these terms, a thing which would scarcely have been proposed to a man of honour, and signed on the 19th a second capitulation, by which he consented to evacuate Ulm on the day following'; thus abridging considerably, at a crisis when every minute was precious, any advantage, direct or contingent, which the Austrians could have derived from the delay originally stipulated…’

Several events in Napoleon’s military campaigns coincide with a date of October 19^th.  In 1813 that date witnessed the end of the Battle of Leipzig, which was a terrible defeat for Napoleon.  A year previous, was Napoleon retreating from Moscow.  In 1805, however, Bonaparte’s fortune was still with him, and he emerged victorious from the Battle of Ulm.

General Karl Mack, whose actions are described above in text from Walter Scott’s “The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte”, fared poorly on the battle field, and, having been given his freedom by Napoleon, was court-martialed for surrendering the Austrian army.

Feast of Saint Luke

"Well judgeth my Lord Constable, to withdraw his noble lady from the host of petticoated empirics, who, like so many Amazons, break in upon and derange the regular course of physical practice, with their petulant prognostics, their rash recipes, their mithridate, their febrifuges, their amulets, and their charms. Well speaketh the Ethnic poet,

'Non audet, nisi quae didicit, dare quod medicorum est; Promittunt medici—tractant fabrilia fabri.'"

As he repeated these lines with much emphasis, the doctor permitted his patient's arm to drop from his hand, that he might aid the cadence with a flourish of his own. "There," said he to the spectators, "is what none of you understand—no, by Saint Luke, nor the Constable himself."

The text above is from “The Betrothed”.  Saint Luke is mentioned in dialogue in more than one of Walter Scott’s novels.  Perhaps his status as patron saint of artists brought Luke to mind several times for Scott.  Luke is known, among other things, for his command of Greek writing.  October 18^th is the Feast of Saint Luke.

Sir Philip Sydney

‘…The reign of James I, of England possessed this advantage in a peculiar degree. Some beams of chivalry, although its planet had been for some time set, continued to animate and gild the horizon, and although probably no one acted precisely on its Quixotic dictates, men and women still talked the chivalrous language of Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia; and the ceremonial of the tilt-yard was yet exhibited, though it now only flourished as a Place de Carousel…’

The author of “The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia”, Sir Philip Sydney, died this day, October 17, 1586.  The text above is from the introduction to Sir Walter Scott’s “Fortunes of Nigel”.